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by Michael S. Malone and Tom Hayes

The recent quick fade of the Deficit Commission was the latest reminder that America no longer seems to have the stomach for big challenges. There was a time – was it just a generation ago? – when Americans were legendary for doing vast, seemingly superhuman, projects: the Interstate Highway System, the Apollo Missions, Hoover Dam, the Manhattan Project, the Normandy invasion, the Empire State Building, Social Security.

What happened? Today we look at these achievements, much as Dark Age peasants looked on the mighty works of the Roman Era, feeling like some golden age has passed when giants walked the Earth. Even when we can still see the aged survivors of that era sunning themselves outside the local convalescent home – or sitting down with us for family holiday dinner – it’s hard not believe that there was once something larger-than-life about them that they failed to pass on to us. The ‘Greatest Generation’, and those before them back to the birth of this country, seemed to be able to do big things, and think big thoughts, in a way that is now beyond both our abilities and our desires.

We no longer build the world’s tallest buildings – other countries do. We no longer reaching towards the moon – other countries are. And when we do attempt something big – universal health care, alternative energy, improved educational standards, mass transportation – the initiative inevitably snarls up in bad planning, corruption, political pay-offs, lack of leadership, impracticality and just sheer incompetence. The comparatively tiny Lincoln Administration managed to win the Civil War, open up the Great Plains through the Homestead Act, and kick off construction of the transcontinental railroad. . .all in four years.

Why are things so different now? Why can’t we seem to do big things well anymore? We think there are a number of reasons, some consoling, others worrisome:

Big isn’t big anymore: Big has, in many cases, become Small: nanotechnology, microelectronics, human genome project, distributed networks, ‘smart’ objects – and there is a lot more reward these days in developing a smaller, more power-efficient microprocessor than in pouring a million yards of cement for new dam. So, perhaps much of our sense of failure in achievement is, in fact, merely a failure of perspective.

Collective individualism: Today’s technology, which allows us to connect and communicate directly with each other, makes us less inclined to centralizing themes and collective action. Our networkedworld gives equal voice to every person, while marginalizing intermediaries, including political parties . . .making it much harder to win policy consensus for really big problems. Worse, in a paradox of our times, the more connected we get the more divided we become. The most vocal, outraged group wins.